The Only Way
by FuckMePumps
Summary: [I'll save you, he swears, and to the end he does, but he doesn't save himself.] In that alternate universe where the Heylin ruled all, what would have happened if Raimundo drank the Lao Ming Lone soup instead of Chase Young? slight RaiKim, tragicfic


**a/n** I was rereading some of my older works and came across this in my 50sentences RaiKim fic, Mind If We Collide? _'48 Virtuous-"I'll save you," he swears; and to the end, he does, but he doesn't save himself.' _And it struck a chord. Then a plot came to me. This is the evolution of that plot. Enjoy.

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_**When darkness turns to light,**_

_**It ends tonight**_

_**It ends tonight.**_

_**A falling star**_

_**Least I fall alone.**_

**All American Rejects, It Ends Tonight**

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"_There is a way. That is, if _I _drink the Lao Ming Lone Soup."_

He held up the bowl like a trophy, like something to be proud of, like it wasn't the thing they'd been dreading the most.

She literally felt something pierce her heart as he said those words. Without even needing to think, she grabbed the bowl from his hands and clutched it to her chest.

"No! You can't!" She exclaimed anxiously, the world falling apart around her. "Y-you'll turn evil!"

"But it will give you guys time to escape," he stated with grim determination, his expression sorrowful, but willing.

Her mind was in chaos. Why was he doing this? He seemed almost guilty, like he felt he was responsible for all the terrible events that occurred, like he wanted to be the one to make things right…

A deep, even voice made itself heard, and she, along with everyone else, quieted.

"Kimiko is right. Only I can drink the Lao Ming Lone soup." Chase spoke up, much to her relief. She knew it was cruel to even think about surrendering Chase to the fate Omi had been rambling about, but she couldn't even bear to imagine Rai back on the dark side… never again…

"No, Chase," Rai shook his head, firmly and wearily at the same time. "We both know it would be better if I turn Heylin, because I wouldn't be as much of a threat as Omi says you'll be." He looked around at his team mates, his friends, his family, knowing it might be last time he'll think of them as what they were, and not as enemies.

"Rai, you can't do this…" She whispered tearfully, fingers tightening around the bowl. Everything was changing, and it was all happening so fast she couldn't make sense of most of it, but she was certain that if she let the damnable object go, everything would go very, very wrong.

"Kim," he knelt down to her level, his tone as if speaking to a child. His hands circled around her wrists, and he made her look up at him.

"Remember when Master Fung told us that being Xiaolin Warriors would mean sacrificing everything? That there would come a time that we have to give up the things we want the most, for the greater good?" He said slowly, earnestly, persuasively.

"Yeah. Why?" She asked, though the answer was so very obvious. She just wanted to stall for time, to convince herself that this was all just a nightmare, to fight the reality that was trying to sink in.

"This is that time, Kim. I have to," he murmured, gently prying her fingers off the rim of the bowl. Then, in a low undertone only she could have heard, "I'm sorry."

Two simple words that meant so much: _I'm sorry that life is unfair, I'm sorry that fate is against us, I'm sorry that things have to end up so badly, I'm sorry for having to do this, I'm sorry for not having the chance to make you happy, I'm sorry I have to leave, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry…_

Then he stood up, and she stayed on her knees. Omi, Clay and Dojo had been rendered speechless, probably for the same reasons she was: dismay and disbelief that they were about to lose one of their dearest friends to the side they'd fought to stop, awe and respect about his unyielding decision to give up his soul in order to save the world, and grief, because he might as well be dead. Jack was sobbing uncontrollably, as he was prone to do.

Raimundo glanced at Chase, who was bleak and dismal that it had to be the Wind Dragon who would be lost in his place, even though he was the one who truly understood the logic behind his intentions.

The older man nodded.

His gaze jumped from one familiar face to another, lingering for a moment longer on the features of the only female in the group, then looked back at the soup, at the destiny he chose, for the greater good.

"Well, I guess this is it," he said simply, almost apologetically.

"Bye guys. See you around." No sentimental words or teary farewells, because it wasn't needed. Though he didn't say it aloud, his friends knew he was doing it because he loved them, felt the need to protect them, didn't want them to get hurt, wanted to rescue the earth from the horror that had befallen it.

And at that instant they were sure that in that other life, where things were better, he should have, would have, could have been their leader.

Then he lifted the bowl to his lips and drank down the soup without pause or wasting a drop. The others watched in alarm as she choked back a mournful sob.

Then an inhuman sound shrieked from his throat, growing louder as his clothes tore from the sheer size of what he was becoming, his body transformed into a reptilian creature with white and green scales, like a crocodile, and eerie, brutal cat eyes.

He, or it, roared. They all merely stayed in their place, frozen by shock, until she gasped, screamed, wailed and cried at the same time.

_He was gone._

The creature that used to be Raimundo advanced on them, and they were almost certain they would have had to fight it when it turned and burst through the Plexiglas holding cell. The rest of them jumped out at the chance, but nothing could have prepared them for what happened next.

The creature-Raimundo, once it had gotten out of the spherical prison, had rushed out, clawed hands clutching his head as if demented, and ran right into an extended sword that decorated the walls, piercing his cold-blooded heart and killing him instantly.

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To this day, even after they'd righted the timeline and moved on with their lives, the subject had never been brought up again. They knew there were many possible reasons for what happened: that it had been an accident, that another unseen force had helped them by murdering what would become an enemy…

But then, none of those mattered, because they also knew him.

Raimundo had planned all along to kill himself right after drinking the Lao Ming Lone soup, when he still had a fragment of his memories and his morality hadn't been thoroughly twisted, to stop what he was to become before the real metamorphosis began. He didn't tell them because that was just like him, to anticipate that they might have held him back. And they would have. If they could.

Because to this day, the one thing they still wish for, though they never mention it, was to be able to turn back time and find some other way to defeat the Heylin, a way to save the fallen dragon, a way to make things better than what had transpired in that other distant universe.

Because even if they'd won that battle, settled everything else, and stopped the Heylin once and for all with Chase Young's help, there was one thing that would always haunt them:

The truth was that _shouldn't_ have been the only way for things to happen.

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_**Please DO review. You know you want to.**_


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